Close hard-fought game. Chiefs giving up big plays but still containing. Offensive specialists coming through at the right times. Exceptionally solid special teams play.
And the 4th quarter D getting it done.
I can't help but think about how mind-bogglingly a stretch of difference there is between this team and last year's team. Everyone knows the talent was there, but last year we just slogged through the game until in the 4th quarter it was just accepted by all that we were going to lose. Yes we have a nice new quarterback. Yes we have a nice new coaching staff. And yes having those two additions gives us that intangible that has us playing the full 60 minutes of football, and yes --Just turning it up in the 4th quarter.
Through the game I'm still nervous, though: It's too close. We're not getting untracked. Alex Smith is making bad throws and Dwayne Bowe is not pulling down passes. Ergghkk. But then I think...
4th quarter coming up. If our defense is on the field we're good to go. And sure enough it wasn't any different in today's game. What'd we have, something like four sacks in the 4th quarter today?
While all that is splendid indeed, I can't see how this team can run the table. That wake-up call is around the corner sometime, so just be ready. Think about it. This was a 17-16 win against a team with a quarterback who'd never played a snap, was without his best running back behind him, and he still completed six passes of 25 yards or more. What's going to happen when we face a team with a Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers? (And those two guys in particular? We face them in four games still to come this year.)
I'd heard that they were also without a key D-back, and yet Alex Smith was still throwing balls that were off, one of which was picked late when we could've put them away then and there. This is not to mention that pass he bricked to a wide-open Sean McGrath in the end zone on the series just before that which would've put the Texans out then.
Those things drive me crazy just because this is the Chiefs, my team, my guys, my all-that-stuff. But I still wouldn't trade Smith for anything because he does show guts and resourcefulness when needed. He is still a clutch player and shows phenomenal talent too often, talent we so need to help get us to the level of being real contenders.
And I have to add that having Anthony Fasano back in there is so sweet to see. I think the ruling on the field on his nice catch and power into the end zone should've been a touchdown, but it wasn't, and the review couldn't confirm it because no one could see decisively where the ball was. But that's probably a good thing -- it shows he can catch and hang on the ball in a pile of tacklers. It'll be sweet to see what more we can do with him out there now.
One last thing. Was thinking about that 17-16 score. Didn't we beat another team by that exact same score earlier this season? Hmm, who was that? Oh yeah, the Dallas Cowboys. Lessee, the Chiefs were once the Dallas Texans, and in 1962 the Cowboys shoved us over to KC after we beat the Houston Oilers in the AFL Championship game, and then in, what, 2002, after Houston had lost the Oilers and got a new NFL team, they called themselves the, ahem, Texans.
Just a weird item of the kind that bang around in my tiny little mind every once in a while.
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